We heard a Preacher, a Pastor, declaring in a recent podcast that, after making clear he did not want to, “Put God in a box,” he did not believe God would speak to anyone today in the same way He spoke to the Apostles and the Prophets—because we have the Bible.
So, we wonder: Does this Preacher ever say to his congregation before he begins a Sunday morning sermon that “we are now going to hear the Word of God,” then proceed to expound and expand with words that are not found in Scripture? If God doesn’t speak through Pastors and Teachers (and others) today, then why do we have them or even care to listen to them at all?
This “party line” of dogma is just as offensive and box-binding as the teaching that God speaks only through the Church leaders, priests, and Councils, and in particular through the Pope when he speaks or writes ex cathedra even to the point of adding to or even contradicting the written Scriptures. The same is true of charismatic believers who “prophesy” over others or give them words of knowledge that are not. They all put believers in the box. Each substitutes its own tradition—for the sake only of control, or for their own fear of losing it—for the truth of Scripture.
We must test everything said in the Name of God by the Scripture. We interpret Scripture and every other utterance by Scripture. That is the measuring rod which God has provided for the Church to keep us from straying in our doctrines and creeds. That does not mean that God has ceased to speak to men in multiple ways and forms even today. What He says, or what we think He says, will be consistent with Who He is as revealed in the Word. That is why Jesus instructed folks that “the Scripture cannot be broken” and to search the Scripture because they speak of Him. It is, likewise, why Peter reminded the Church that the prophetic utterances of Scripture were not the product of private interpretations. The Holy Spirit moved upon those authors with a message that is consistent throughout–the revelation of God, Who He is, and His Christ never changes.
We may err. Our reception may be poor or the message be obscured by static or other white noise of our own making or intentional junk with which we cloud our lives, but that does not mean God is not speaking to us. We may not be hearing because we are not listening. He may be speaking through the mouths of babes. We may even misinterpret or misapply the Word in our zeal. But, He has shown us a more excellent way to test the leading or Voice we think we hear. He has taught us how to test the spirits—Is Jesus divine? Did He come in the flesh?—so that we are not misled. And, He has given us Pastors, elders and leaders to oversee and help us to understand sound and unsound doctrine. And most important for today’s Christian, He has provided the Holy Spirit in the Church with gifts of discernment. We can and must trust and listen to the Holy Spirit as God continues to speak to us collectively and individually today just as He did in ages past. His message is still the same, as it was yesterday and will be forever—even as our circumstances and needs may keep changing under specific challenges that confront us in the present day.
The material things with which we deal today, the way we dress, how we communicate or transport ourselves may have changed since Bible times, but those Prophets and Faith Heroes we study were men and women just like us! There is no reason we cannot have the same experiences with God–whenever those may be His Sovereign will and serve His purposes–as they did of old. We cannot have them if we do not believe we can or accept them in faith, itself a gift from God. We must believe and wait upon the Lord, being faithful by His Grace even when He seems silent to us or we do not hear Him or “feel” that He hears us. Has God forgotten us? By no means!
If God chooses to speak in an audible Voice, a still small Whisper, by the Prompting of the Spirit, in the Thunder or by means of a donkey, we ought to be listening. Let’s hope we are.
We trust not only that God still speaks today–to believers, to the Church, to Church leaders, and to the world–but that He hears our prayers too!
He is alive!
Men Following Jesus 